Advantages

Disadvantages

not recommended

I like to keep a well stocked first aid cabinet in case of emergencies so picked up the Fast Aid adhesive wound strips from my local chemist for around £3.50 for a pack. Each pack contains a total of six steri strip type plasters in order to let you close a deeper wound as well as two clear film dressings to cover and protect the wound. It is claimed that these type of dressings act like a second skin and are waterproof and help to stop bacteria invading the wound. They also claim to help the wound heal faster by stopping a scab to form which helps to reduce scarring.

I put the dressings away and forgot about them until disaster struck. I bought a tin of sandwich tuna for my moggies and tried to open it with my aging tin opener. The tin still had a couple of pieces where the lid was stuck so I tired to prise it off with my fingers and ended up slicing my thumb open with the lid. It was a very nasty gash across the joint and I debated whther or not to go and get stitches but the thought of spending hours in A&E made me decide to deal with the wound at home.

I got my pack of dressings out and got to work after cleaning the wound with savlon. The first stage of dressing the wound was to put the adhesive strips on to draw together the edges of the cut. The strips themselves are a good long length and are easy to take off the backing. Getting them to close the wound was a bit of a nightmare as they are so stretchy that when you try and pull the wound together they went out of shape. I did eventually manage to get the wound closed together using 3 strips but it is a lot easier to use proper steri strips.

The next stage was to put the clear dressing over the wound to protect it. This was simple to do, the film is very thin and soft and stuck down easily. It stayed put even though it had been applied over a joint. The fact that you could see through it meant that I could see how the wound was progressing. I did not find it fully waterproof as claimed and needed to wear rubber gloves when doing any household tasks.

My thumb did not heal at all using these dressings and I ended up visiting my practice nurse 3 days after I used the dressings because the wound was not healing at all and was ozzy. It was not infected but the nurse said it was heading that way and she put on an antibacterial iodine dressing and the cut healed up extremely quickly after that, she said that the film dressings are the worst thing you can put on a wound as it doesn't allow any air in to the wound and they actually promote infection because the wound needs air to heal.

Overall, I would not recommend the fast aid adhesive wound strips because they were diffucult to apply and did not help my cut heal.